It is well documented that Sharon Osbourne (wife and manager of Ozzy Osbourne) and Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson have been embroiled in a feud for years.
It reportedly began during Ozzfest 2005, when Dickinson made some comments that Sharon didn’t like. As revenge, she had the P.A. turned off during Iron Maiden’s set in San Bernardino, CA, and even recruited people to throw objects at Dickinson during their set.
Now, while speaking to Metal Hammer, Sharon reflected on the feud, saying that while she doesn’t have anything against Iron Maiden, Dickinson’s alleged comments didn’t sit right with her.
“I love Iron Maiden, it’s just the singer because he was so horribly disrespectful. But if you’re going to take Ozzy’s money, and play before him every night of a festival, and you’re bad-mouthing him to the crowd, you’ve got to pay. So I had him pelted with cans of baked beans that were open, and cut his sound,” she said.
Sharon then recalled Ozzy’s reaction after he found out about her plan.
“Ozzy only has respect for the guys in Maiden. And he didn’t even know what Bruce was doing. I never told him, until the night that it happened, when it was the last show, and he just looked at me and goes, ‘You’re terrible.'”
As it turns out, Sharon and Dickinson’s feud had a bit of collateral damage. In an interview last year with Metal Hammer, guitarist and vocalist Matt Heafy of Trivium revealed that after his band declined to throw eggs at Dickinson and instead performed their set wearing Iron Maiden t-shirts, the festival’s crew began treating them differently.
“We got bullied by the Ozzfest crew,” Heafy said. “They’d drive their golf carts right up to our faces, shoot dirt at us. Paolo [Gregoletto, bassist] almost got arrested at one of the shows. It was a strange time; we paid $30,000 to get bullied like we were in high school!”
